As the House Select Committee on Benghazi prepares for its first hearing this week, a former State Department diplomat is coming forward with a startling allegation: Hillary Clinton confidants were part of an operation to “separate” damaging documents before they were turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

According to former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, the after-hours session took place over a weekend in a basement operations-type center at State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. This is the first time Maxwell has publicly come forward with the story.

At the time, Maxwell was a leader in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which was charged with collecting emails and documents relevant to the Benghazi probe.

“I was not invited to that after-hours endeavor, but I heard about it and decided to check it out on a Sunday afternoon,” Maxwell says.

It is important to remember that Maxwell was one of the four State Department officials who was disciplined – and later cleared – for the devastating security lapses leading up to the attacks.

Maxwell told Attkisson that the weekend document-scrubbing session was held in the basement of the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom.

When he arrived, Maxwell saw boxes and stacks of documents.

A State Department office director who was one of Clinton’s top advisers was there, which was a surprise to Maxwell. She worked for him, but he was not told she was attending the “weekend assignment.”

“She told me, ‘Ray, we are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the [Near Eastern Affairs] front office or the seventh floor in a bad light,’” says Maxwell.

He says “seventh floor” was State Department shorthand for then-Secretary of State Clinton and her principal advisers.

Here’s some more shorthand:

“Anybody” = Hillary Clinton

“Bad light” = prison

In other words, “We are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put Hillary Clinton in prison.”

Maxwell said he questioned the office director about what was going on:

Shortly after he arrived, Maxwell said, two high-ranking State Department officials walked in.

FoxNews.com spoke with Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who confirmed that Maxwell told him and other lawmakers the same story when they privately interviewed him last year about the attacks and their aftermath:

Chaffetz said that Maxwell claimed Clinton’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were overseeing the document operation, which allegedly took place on a weekend in a basement office of the State Department.

“What they were looking for is anything that made them look bad. That’s the way it was described to us,” Chaffetz said.

Chaffetz said such documents were said to be removed, so that Congress and the Accountability Review Board — the board probing security lapses as well as the attack’s aftermath — would not see them.

Chaffetz described Maxwell’s account as “consistent” all this time. The congressman said he is speaking publicly about Maxwell’s allegations because Maxwell himself has gone public with them.

Chaffetz named the two Hillary Clinton confidants who allegedly were present. One was Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff and a former White House counsel who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. The other was Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan.

Maxwell says the office director and an intern moved into a small office where they looked through some papers that included pre-attack telegrams and cables between the U.S. embassy in Tripoli and State Department headquarters.

After a short time, Maxwell says he decided to leave.

“I didn’t feel good about it,” he says.

The Accountability Review Board (ARB) was allegedly granted full access to everyone and everything needed – including all documents – during its October 2012 investigation of the Benghazi attacks.

But Maxwell says significant documents could not have made it to the ARB. He also criticized the ARB as “anything but independent,” and cited co-chairman Admiral Mike Mullen’s statement before Congress that he had consulted Clinton chief of Staff Cheryl Mills over the phone to give her insider advice after the interviewing potential congressional witnesses.

“The ARB inquiry was, at best, a shoddily executed attempt at damage control, both in [State Dept. Headquarters in ] Foggy Bottom and on Capitol Hill,” said Maxwell.

This week, the House Select Committee on Benghazi will hold its first hearing.

“There are still facts to learn about Benghazi and information that needs to be explained in greater detail to the American people,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the committee chairman and a former federal prosecutor, said earlier this month. “And this committee will do just that.”

When we have eliminated all of the current members (both appointed and elected) of this government and elected new representatives who realize that their very lives literally depend upon them obeying the will of the people. Until then, we best expect nothing good from these people and stay out of their way!

Cracker122049

And what will happen to hitlery with this damning information? Not a damn thing that’s what nor to any of her minion!No amount of scandals mean anything unless of course it has to do with a citizen and a gun then the full extent of the kangaroo court will be used to get the perp!

Maxwell better look out because he could very easily end up in a body bag, and nobody will blame the Clintons. They get away with it every time.

Strayhorse

C’mon American Citizens, the U.S. Government does not represent nor does it protect you. You are chattel if you produce/earn less than $60,000 a year. The U.S. government is NOT We The People. Honest investigation, yeah right! There hasn’t been an honest investigation in the U.S. government since before the death of Lincoln. America and the United States are two totally DIFFERENT ENTITIES, and the name Clinton does not mean honest, trusting or patriot.

Joe Woolf

LOL, Remember when the Clinton’s lawyer drove himself to a park, shot himself in the head and then threw himself down a ravine? Yeah, I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of this mess.

They’ll hang the whistle blower or, he’ll have an unfortunate accident… But, much more likely… they’ll attempt to discredit the whistle blower then Eric Holder will do nothing and they’ll call it all old news…. I say this because, they’re not even really hiding their corruption anymore… and the people are doing nothing about it. And, to top it off, Obama just replaced a BUNCH of federal judges that all owe the party some favors…. We’re already living under a tyranny…. expect no justice.

Truicki12

If they were serious about removing documents, Sandy Berger should have been invited with some over-the-knee socks.

Bruce Prentis

Yet one more of those “phony scandals” of this criminal administration. You can bet nothing will be done about it. How many scandals is this for this administration? Seven, right,….he’ll who can keep track anymore. Impeach them all, try this whole damn administration for their crimes and hang them for treason. I am so damn furious this criminal administration gets away with crime after crime, yet let some po dunk old geezer spot on the sidewalk and they get a life sentence.

Joe Woolf

Nothing will be done…. Eric Holder, even with smoking gun evidence will ignore all of it. After all, this cover up implicates his own boss at the top of this thing….. It influenced an election, after all.